Suspect surrenders in skeletal remains case

An Ingleside man surrendered to police today after he was charged with a fatal 2006 shooting in a Palatine condominium, authorities said.

Preston J. Cooper, 24, of the 35200 block of North Ravine Lane was charged Tuesday with first degree murder in the shooting of Jesse Beskow, 20, at a party hosted by Cooper's girlfriend on July 25, 2006.

Cooper turned himself in at the Palatine police station. He was accompanied by a lawyer.

At the time of the shooting, Cooper was staying with his girlfriend, Jacqueline Gallagher, 20, at her grandmother's condominium while her grandmother was at a nursing home. Gallagher hosted the party, police said.

Bail was set Tuesday at $100,000 for Gallagher, of Round Lake Heights, who has been charged with helping conceal the homicide.

Gallagher helped clean the condominium unit after the shooting and also helped dispose of Beskow's body, prosecutors said at a hearing in the Rolling Meadows branch of Cook County Circuit Court. Gallagher has been charged with concealing a homicidal death.

She helped load Beskow's body into the trunk of a car and then drove the car to an area near East 110th Street and South Stony Island Avenue, where the body was dumped, said Matthew Thrun, an assistant state's attorney.

Beskow's remains were found Saturday in an isolated area among high weeds in a wetland, police said.

"Everyone was hopeful that he was OK," said Beskow's stepgrandmother, Roberta Beskow of Waukegan. "We love Jesse. You're always going to hold out some hope for the best. It will be good to get some closure."

Beskow grew up in Waukegan and in the Round Lake area. Family members reported him missing in Fox Lake in August 2006. At the time, Beskow had been visiting his sister in her Fox Lake apartment and was planning to move to Wisconsin, according to his maternal grandmother, Nancy Oglesby, who lives in the Kansas City area.

Beskow was staying with friends as he prepared for the move, which led to confusion about his whereabouts when family members tried to contact him about his father's death, Oglesby said.

"He loved to draw anything and everything," Oglesby recalled. "He was considering becoming a tattoo artist. I'm fortunate to have as a memory his joking, funny self." He was a great, creative kid who gave his granny great joy."